Wireless communication devices (WCDs) utilize wireless coverage areas, defined by radio access networks (RANs), for voice and data services. While a RAN and WCDs served by the RAN may communicate with one another via signaling channels in a substantially continuous fashion, the RAN may only allocate traffic channels to a WCD when that WCD or the RAN seeks to exchange voice, messaging, multimedia, or other forms of data. Thus, when a WCD is not actively transmitting or receiving voice, messaging, multimedia, or other forms of data, the WCD may relinquish traffic channels that it was allocated until the WCD once again needs to communicate with other devices.
Some RANs support primary and secondary paging channels through which a RAN can notify WCDs of incoming communications, such as voice calls and data sessions. These paging channels may be associated, in the sense that they may operate in a coordinated fashion to inform WCDs of these incoming communications, as well as traffic channel assignments. The RAN may organize the WCDs using the wireless coverage area into groups, and each group may be assigned the same time-division multiplexed (TDM) slots on these paging channels.
For instance, a RAN may utilize a slot of a low-bitrate secondary paging channel to transmit a first paging message to group of WCDs. The first paging message may indicate that at least one of the WCDs in the group will be paged with an upcoming second paging message that will occur in a slot of an associated, higher-bitrate primary paging channel. Preferably, each WCD in the group will then attempt to receive the second paging message in order to determine whether they are being paged.
In such a system, the TDM slots on the secondary paging channel may be significantly shorter than the TDM slots on the primary paging channel. This results in a WCD using more power when it listens to a TDM slot on the primary paging channel than when the WCD listens to a TDM slot on the secondary paging channel. Given that many WCDs are battery-powered mobile devices, it is desirable to their minimize power usage when possible, and thereby increase battery life.